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Category Archives: Crochet

One of the things that I do at my job is manage a harm reduction distribution program. Amongst other things, we hand out needles and crackpipes to people who are using drugs – science has shown that handing them out is a good way to prevent the spread of diseases and infections like HIV and Hepatitis C.

During outreach last night, I commented on how I’ve been greatly enjoying my crocheting lately – maybe even getting better! – and it was decided that I should try to crochet a crackpipe cosy. Not for actually handing out, but because, y’know, why not?

As it turns out, the answer to “why not?” is “because it just looks obscene.”

I am not very good at practicing things without a reason. I also wanted to see if I could make a pair of slippers. And, so, here I am wearing my new ‘ruby slippers’. All told, they took about 2 hours – much of which was spent swearing and googling for help.

But they turned out reasonably – I could point out all the various mistakes and I could show you where my tension went nuts, but they’re on my feet and no one is looking, so I’ll just smile. If they were a gift for someone, that would be a different story (and I’d have ripped out the stitches and started over in that case!)

The pattern for them is here. The yarn that I used is Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick in Poinsettia. You can’t see it very well in the picture above, but the yarn has a tinsel-like metallic thread running through it that makes the slippers look a tiny bit sparkly. I’m happy!

I might make a second pair just to see if I can improve on my speed and avoid some of the mistakes.

Oh, how I love the idea of amigurumi and oh, man, I am awful at tiny fiddly things. But my friend Michelle sent me an amazing amigurumi maneki-neko recently and it inspired me to try again. With something simple. Not a maneki. I have basic crochet skills, so I didn’t want anything too ambitious.

Another friend had sent me a link to Nerdigurumi a long time ago. There are some really neat (and nerdy) free patterns there – but, more importantly for me, there were also some video tutorials. And the videos were row-by-row. I clicked over to the simple Kawaii Chibi patterns, grabbed some yarn, and proceeded to make this little bunny. (I added zombie eyes spontaneously. )

My friend Rebs sent me a link to what looked like a fairly simple pattern for crocheting a small star. I decided to pick up the supplies for it – only to discover that the local Michaels store only had white in the size crochet thread (30) that I needed. I’m not much for plain white anything, so I went for the next size up (10) and scaled up my hook accordingly.

It’s worth noting that I gave up knitting because it made me too tense – though I tease that I quit because my husband was so much better at it than me (it’s true, he is). I was giving myself headaches and sore wrists from clenching things too tightly and contorting myself to knit. It was ridiculous.

It’s also worth noting that crocheting is only marginally more relaxing for me. I need more practice, ultimately, so that I can stop death-gripping the yarn and the hook.

In short, all of my yarn-related projects are infused with a great deal of muttering and profanity.

Halfway through working on this star, I realized that the tension on my stitches was all over the place and I had made a few mistakes. I decided to just keep going anyway. Maybe the next one will be less lopsided?

Loonie to show size

At least it didn’t take me a lot of time to make this – though far more than I’d have hoped. That tiny crochet thread is ridiculous to try to hold onto and kept slipping from my hand!